Has anyone here purchased and used a JR pass?

[koku]

How was it? Worth it? Not? Were you able to get around almost everywhere with it, or were there still certain types of trains that the pass didn't include that were pretty neccesary to get to the finer parts of cities?

[gentlemanandscholar]

Yes! Worth every penny if you plan on travelling to many different places. I'm in the process of buying another one for when I go to Japan this year.

I suggest getting the Ordinary type pass... special coaches are a waste of money imo. It covers all JR lines, as well as JR buses and for one of the ferries. I can't remember which. There are JR lines to all major cities, so don't worry.

Only thing you'll have to pay for is the subway.

I'll be using it to travel from Tokyo to Iwate to Fukuoka back to Tokyo. Fun!

edit: for those of you interested, here is the website: http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html

[Plekto]

I can second this - it's like EuroRail - the passes are a godsend, since you don't need cash. Just hop on and go wherever. Now, you can also get a local subway pass, IIRC(depending where you live of course), so that should cover the local stuff as well.

I've done this in Los Angeles with the Metro in the past as well - such a bother with the tickets and such. Just show the conductor the card if they ask for it, and forget about it.

[Pierrot le Fou]

The price of a two-week pass is only a slight bit more than a round trip shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto and back. It will pay for the trip to and from the airport (at least a couple thousand yen if you fly into Kansai International, more like 4000 if you're flying into Narita), it will pay for day trips (if you base in Kansai, you save the 2000 round trip to Nara or Kobe for instance, as well as the 1000 yen round trip to Osaka and the like), and you can even consider taking a day trip to Hiroshima or even a weekend down to Fukuoka.

If I could get one on the visa I'm on now, I'd be all over it. I'd be sleeping on the shinkansen, and hitting on the women pushing the carts up and down its aisle. I wonder how sex at 200+ km/hour would feel? On a food cart?

[koku]

Sweet. Sounds like it's worth it to me. I'm not a fan of paying 10k just take a train down to Tokyo from Osaka either. I do believe that you can't use shinkansen with a JR pass ( edit -- thanks scott), though. I wonder if it's all the transporation you'll need once you get into the cities, though. I don't mind a little walk, but I'd like to know ahead of time if I'm going to spend 25 minutes to find the "JR marked" train. Looks like I'll be saving an extra $300 and picking up a 7 day pass.

[Scott]

You can use a shinkansen with the JR pass. Just the hikari and kodama, though -- not the nozomi.

If you get the JR Pass (not the JR East or any of the other subsidiaries), you can ride basically anything JR-owned. What you cannot do is ride the nozomi and reserve seats. Speaking for Tokyo alone, the JR pass is super handy. I used the shinkansen for quite a few trips as well, so my one-week pass saved a ton of money.

Be aware that if you're going over on an educational visa, you can't use the JR Pass.

[/|/@/|/@し]

JR passes do help if you're going a lot of places and they are pretty easy to get. I don't remember the prices but I remember getting a week's pass so that I could use it for a round trip to Tokyo from Osaka and back. The friend I was with who bought a one way ticket before we left paid about half the price as mine. So, it basicly evens out or saves you money depending where you go.

It's easy to get, they just mailed me a reciept after I spoke to an American company near me and in Japan I picked it up... I don't know about which trains to ride or not because I just hoped on the closest shinkensen I saw to where I was going. Eheh.. When I was there I will say they weren't very secure and wouldn't even check the date when I went by. I showed them the cover of the pass and they all just nodded, and let me through. And on the shinkensen, I only had to show my pass once when I took it twice.

And you can only use JR trains with it. Most of the trains I took were not JR.. Mostly just the longer trips. I don't know how that stuff works. But don't expect everywhere you go to have a JR station. (I used JR mostly for things like, Tokyo to Osaka. Osaka to Kyoto. etc. And only one line in Tokyo.. That Shinjuku/harajuku/yogogi/whatever place. The others were some other company) So you should also have some money for other subway and train stations too.

[Scott]

They always checked my pass and always checked the date. You can only pick up the pass itself in Japan, at a booth that does JR Passes (there's one in front of the trains at Narita Int'l, for example). All you buy in the US is the ticket that entitles you to get the JR Pass -- which in and of itself cannot be used as the pass.

The only time I took a non-JR train was leaving Narita Int'l.

The guy with the nickname that I can't bring myself to type is probably talking about the Yamanote Line in Tokyo. It's a circular line that hits pretty much every major stop imaginable. It's not hard to find JR stations either -- you just look for the JR symbol. Even now, after they've been privatized, they still cover a really, really big chunk of Japan.

Edit: And honestly, it's not that hard to ride only JR, especially if you're willing to walk and actually see the city.

[DoM of the South]

i totally agree with Scott, it is not hard to find JR trains and stations, they are very much available.

To the OP it is definitely well worth investing in as everyone has mentioned but also you can reserve seats by going to the JR office in the station you wish to catch the shinkansen from and then you are guaranteed a seat which is helpful when you have bags. subway trains aren't that expensive if you don't use JR lines within cities but you can plan your travels around the train lines!

[羽之助]

There is - and I have no idea how to get it - a JR Flexipass.

Buy one week's worth, and only use the days that you need. My friend got one when she came to visit me, but she came through a dirty, underhanded Chinese travel agency.

[Scott]

The JR pass doesn't allow you (or at least, didn't, year ago) to reserve seats and still use the pass.

As a side note, I bought my pass through JTB USA, the US branch of JTB in Japan, which does pretty much, uh, everything related to travel.

[Chinpokomon]

The JR pass doesn't allow you (or at least, didn't, year ago) to reserve seats and still use the pass.

I was able to reserve seats with my pass two years ago. Are you positive? Did you go to the JR ticket before you got on the train?


More importantly, Kokujin, aren't you going on a student visa? You realize you can't use these on a student visa, right? Unless that's changed recently too...

[Scott]

No, I read it in the little booklet that is the JR Pass. Let me try to dig it up and see if I'm completely misremembering this.

Yeah, I mentioned the student visa thing earlier, he never said. >.>

[Akagaminosteven]

I was able to reserve seats with my pass two years ago.

I was able to, also. Perhaps it has to do with what type of pass you get?

[koku]

I was able to reserve seats with my pass two years ago. Are you positive? Did you go to the JR ticket before you got on the train?


More importantly, Kokujin, aren't you going on a student visa? You realize you can't use these on a student visa, right? Unless that's changed recently too...


Actually, the program that i'm doing is specifically 89 days so they don't have to change my visa status. I'll be going there as a foreign visitor.

My only gripe with the JR passes are they have to be used on consecutive days and as far as I know, must be purchased before you go and activated after. I'm pretty sure (hoping) that there will be a time in my schedule where I get a weekend and a couple days off in a row.

[Rogue_7]

The JR pass doesn't allow you (or at least, didn't, year ago) to reserve seats and still use the pass.

As a side note, I bought my pass through JTB USA, the US branch of JTB in Japan, which does pretty much, uh, everything related to travel.

Yeah, when I was here a year ago and when my sister was here a few weeks ago JR Pass seat reservations were allowed. Its easy, just ask for a reservation to X city, they stamp your pass print your ticket and voila. Its the greatest thing since the invention of the high speed train.

[gentlemanandscholar]

For the flexible pass: You have to purchase from a specific JR subdivision, like JReast or JRwest, and it is only valid on that line.

As for reservations: if you get the ordinary pass you aren't allowed reservations. If you get the green pass you can ride in the green cars as well as reserve seats ahead of time.

[Chinpokomon]

As for reservations: if you get the ordinary pass you aren't allowed reservations on the green car. If you get the green pass you can ride in the green cars as well as reserve seats ahead of time.
Corrected your typo...

[gentlemanandscholar]

Corrected your typo...

thank you (ellipsis)

[krotch]

Never bought a JR Pass, but I did buy a Suica card. It's pretty nice. I just slap 20,000 yen on it and forget about it for the next month or two.

I'm not much for trains. I like driving, so I spend quite a bit of time in my car instead. Just park your car along the road with your blinkers on. Viola! Free parking.

[Chinpokomon]

I'm not much for trains. I like driving, so I spend quite a bit of time in my car instead. Just park your car along the road with your blinkers on. Viola! Free parking.
Starting last week or the week before, they supposedly are cracking down on this.

[羽之助]

Starting last week or the week before, they supposedly are cracking down on this.

It's about frikkin' time. Is there a snitch line?

[krotch]

Starting last week or the week before, they supposedly are cracking down on this.

Ya, supposedly. I have yet to actually see it happening. Drove to Shinjuku this past weekend. Tons of ppl parked along the roads with the blinkers on, from Tachikawa to Shinjuku (via Route 5).

Cracking down on this is like the RIAA cracking down on piracy. They can slow it down a little, but they aren't going to hit all of it.